Swimming In Vomit: Swimmers Horrified As Lifeguards Use Wave Machine To ‘Break Up’ Vomit In Public Pool

Swimmers at a public pool at Cleethorpes Leisure Center in Lincolnshire were horrified with the way cleanup was handled – or not handled – after a woman vomited in the pool.

Swimmers were enjoying a day in the pool on Sunday at at Cleethorpes Leisure Center in Lincolnshire when a woman felt ill and vomited in the water. The swimmers – many of whom had children with them – watched in horror as the lifeguards could not decide what to do to clean up the vomit.

Metro reported that lifeguards seemed baffled as to how to handle the situation after the woman vomited, and called a manager over. The manager sent a lifeguard into the poll to “scoop up the lumps” and then did the unthinkable: he ordered the wave machine to be turned on to stir up the vomit.

Horrified swimmers left the pool, taking their children with them. One swimmer, Steve Wiseman, who had taken his daughter and granddaughter to the pool that day, told his local newspaperthe Grimsby Telegraph that the churned-up vomit in the pool was a “biohazard.”

“It was disgusting. It is gross. I think it is a bio hazard.”

Wiseman, and the other swimmers who left the pool, believe that the incident was poorly handled.

“They should have got everyone out and cleaned it.”

A spokesperson from the Leisure Center felt satisfied that the matter was handled appropriately, and that “national industry and safety guidelines” were followed. According to the spokesperson, the guidelines state that “contamination” such as vomit can be “removed from the pool” with the disinfectant on the water killing any leftover pathogens.

The spokesperson said that the pool would have been temporarily closed if the pool staff had not been able to “contain the contamination,” but they felt that they had sufficiently been able to do so.

The question, then, boils down to how vomit can properly be “contained.” And for swimmers like Steve Wiseman, using a wave machine to mix the vomit in with the rest of the pool water does not amount to sufficient containment.

Would you allow your children to swim in a pool in which someone had vomited? Do you think the matter was handled satisfactorily?